American Historical Ephemera and Early Photography

Half plate ambrotype featuring a remarkable scene of a line of at least 7 visible covered wagons being pulled by oxen, with several men standing and riding horses along the line. A body of water is visible in the near background. (Spotting and some fading to image, heavy loss to lacquer on verso, though replaced at some point with a dark cloth; unsealed.) Housed in a leatherette case (surface wear). Penciled note on case behind image reads, "The trains leaving Nebraska City in the year of 1859." Also accompanied by inked note reading, "'The trains leaving Nebraska City in the year of 1859' - which is inscribed under the glass. These trains carried provisions - such as bacon, beans & etc."

It has been suggested that this could be an image of one of the Russell Majors and Reed wagon trains leaving Nebraska City in furtherance of an army contract.

Westward wagon train traffic through Nebraska in the year 1859 consisted of civilian, military and Colorado gold rush traffic. The trails were an extension of the Oregon Trail and other trails that continued or were actually organized in Nebraska for the purpose of migration and of supplying freight to the West. On 27 March 1855, Major E. S. Sibley, quartermaster at Fort Leavenworth, KS made a contract with a newly organized firm of Majors & Russell (soon to be Russell, Majors & Waddell) for transportation of stores for the period of 1855-1856. On 16 January 1858, Russell, Majors & Waddell received two transportation contracts with Quartermaster General Thomas Jessup, one pertaining to the Oregon Trail and Utah trade and the other to the Santa Fe Trail to run during the years 1858 and 1859. Over 10,000,000 pounds of freight were rated, and Russell, Majors & Waddell was the only firm capable of handling this volume at the time.

The challenges of moving vast distances with heavy loads required freighters to use an animal that was both hardy and strong, and this animal had to be available in large quantities at reasonable prices. At one time, Russell, Majors, and Waddell had 40,000 oxen under yoke. During the year 1859, Russell, Majors & Waddell were engaged in fulfilling its military contract and for supplying merchant trade to Utah and Colorado, and in an 1860 report by the firm, they estimated that they had sent out over 12,000 head of oxen from Nebraska City during the previous year.